Mailed notices to JRC employees another step in the sale process

Employees of Journal Register Company, the parent company of The Reporter among than 350 multi-platform products in 10 states, today received termination notices as part of the pending sale of the entire company, which has been under bankruptcy protection.

This does not mean there will be changes in the operation or staffing of The Reporter, The Times Herald, The Pottstown Mercury, The Souderton Independent, The Ambler Gazette, The Saratogian, or other Journal Register Company properties. Changes, if any, will be up to the new owners.

“The notices sent to all Journal Register Company employees — from part-time staffers to managers to the executive team — are the next step in the Company’s ongoing sale process. Journal Register Company’s leadership team cannot speak on behalf of the new owner but has continually expressed to the purchaser that a competent and competitive workforce is critical to the company’s success moving forward,” Jonathan Cooper, vice president for media relations and employee communication at Digital First Media, said. Digital First Media currently operates Journal Register Company and other media companies.

The termination notices were mailed to every employee in the company in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly called the WARN Act — which requires most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor website.

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In this case, once the sale is complete, the purchaser will contact current Journal Register Company employees about its staffing decisions. Journal Register Company officials said they hope to complete the sale on or about April 17.

The sole bid of $122.15 million for the Journal Register Company, which is under federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, came from 21st CMH Acquisition Co. The bidder is a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital LLC, the current owner of Journal Register Company.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the details of the auction for the sale of Journal Register Company in December. The court has a hearing scheduled Thursday at which time the court will decide whether to approve the CMH Acquisition bid.

Journal Register Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. That filing was explained by John Paton in a Sept. 5, 2012, post on his public blog. Paton is CEO of Digital First Media, which operates Digital First Ventures, MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company.

Paton came on board after Journal Register Company’s first bankruptcy restructuring in 2009, bringing a decisive focus on digital content and revenue for the company’s survival. Journal Register Company has experienced huge percentage increases in digital growth, while still facing declines in print readership and print advertising similar to figures reported throughout the newspaper industry.

“While the Journal Register Company cannot afford to halt its investments in its digital future it can now no longer afford the legacy obligations incurred in the past,” Paton wrote in his Sept. 5 blog post. “Many of those obligations, such as leases, were entered into in the past when revenues, at their peak, were nearly twice as big as they are today and are no longer sustainable.”

Journal Register Company officials have said they cannot speak for the new owners. They have set up an employee hotline and are referring all media inquiries to its vice president of media relations and employee communications.